Tweet hits the Oxford English Dictionary

THE WORD "tweet" has been added to the next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, despite having been around for less than a decade.

This is unusual for the OED, but it said that the word, which means to send a message on Twitter, is "catching on".

"The noun and verb tweet (in the social-networking sense) has just been added to the OED," said John Simpson, chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary. "This breaks at least one OED rule, namely that a new word needs to be current for ten years before consideration for inclusion. But it seems to be catching on."

Last year the microblogging social network website simplified its logo, which is a blue bird, and made it clear that it wanted people to capitalise the word "tweet" whenever they use it.

"Starting today you'll begin to notice a simplified Twitter bird. From now on, this bird will be the universally recognizable symbol of Twitter. (Twitter is the bird, the bird is Twitter)," it said.

"There's no longer a need for text, bubbled typefaces, or a lowercase 't' to represent Twitter. Please remember to capitalize the T in Twitter and Tweet."

Back at the dictionary, another newly added word is "wingsuit", which an article of clothing for flying that people throw themselves off or out of things wearing.

Also in is "crowdsourcing", described as, "The practice of obtaining information or services by soliciting input from a large number of people, typically via the internet and often without offering compensation."